The Teacher with the Bowtie
by waterlily11
Summary: "I could help Rose Tyler with her homework..." 11th Doctor goes back in time to see Rose. One-shot


The Doctor was leaning against the control panels of his TARDIS, not really doing much except for fiddling with a lever every few minutes.

There was too much silence. Suddenly his bowtie felt as it were constricting around his neck. He tugged on it to loosen it, yet didn't untie it.

"Bowties are cool," he stated out loud.

Yet the sound waves remained free of any protests or smirks of indignation.

The Doctor was tempted to go pick up Amy and go off to the far reaches of the universe (there was a planet on the top of his mind that she would enjoy) or maybe go back in London's past and perhaps visit some of the Royal family. He laughed out loud, which echoed throughout the room of the TARDIS.

He could validate his "Werewolf" theory.

But Amy was traveling with his younger 908 self and the Doctor knew he couldn't intervene and screw up his timeline.

His chest started hurting so he went back to thinking back to his theory. He had somewhat jokingly said that hemophilia was a euphemism for werewolf, but there were some valid points that were made in support of the theory.

He smiled, remembering those times. Then than pang in his chest came again. Usually, when he thought of…his past companions, he felt a sense of guilt. Right now, he just felt longing.

"Can't do it," he murmured out loud to himself. The Doctor knew that even if he could somehow manage to travel into the parallel world, he might not even want to. Rose was probably living happily with his tenth regeneration clone and wouldn't even recognize the Doctor in his newest state.

Wouldn't recognize the Doctor in his newest state. Of course, this wasn't the first time the Doctor had thought about visiting Rose's past, but he always had Amy to keep him sidetracked and busy.

"I can't," he murmured out loud again, yet his hands started hurriedly pulling levers and his foot started pushing the pedals.

Didn't Jack say even he had watched Rose grow up but he managed not to show himself? If _Jack_ had that will power, so could the Doctor! And plus, the Doctor wouldn't need to worry about hiding himself as he had a totally different appearance and attitude.

A thought went through his mind that Rose might not even like this regeneration but he quickly shoved it away.

The noise of the TARDIS sounded showing that he was landing. He had attempted to gage the TARDIS to when Rose was around her mid-teens but he wasn't exactly sure if the TARDIS would land him there.

He stepped out the TARDIS and ran out, his excitement impossible to contain.

He ran into a wall.

Once he got a sense of his bearings, he realized he had been here before.

It was the same school where he had reencountered Sarah Jane with Rose and her friend Mickey when the kids were suddenly becoming geniuses.

He had taken the guise of a teacher. He could do so again easily.

He walked out, confident, and headed to the principal's office using his memory from the many years before.

The school was in session and kids were pouring throughout the halls. The Doctor felt a burst of excitement every time he glanced upon a blonde head, but would always be disappointed afterwards.

He knocked upon the office door. A voice called out to enter.

The Doctor sauntered in.

"John Smith," he announced himself. He walked up to the desk. A fat man was sitting behind it, repetitively clicking his pen. The Doctor took out his psychic paper as he said "I read you had a position that needed to be filled?"

The principal glanced at the psychic paper briefly and nodded vigorously.

"Great! A maths teacher! With quite a hefty résumé for someone so young…" he looked at the Doctor. The Doctor put on his serious face and straightened his bowtie.

The principal continued. "Our last one couldn't take the mediocrity of his students and quit. Well, I'm sure you'll do and I'll get you your papers."

He opened drawers and shuffled through them. He let out a big sigh.

"I'll have to go to teachers' lounge. I might have left it there." He let out another sigh as he heaved himself off his chair and slowly walked out.

The Doctor watched him leave and then immediately went to the computer. He pulled up a file and quickly went through the student database.

ROSE TYLER

Perfect.

He then closed the file after reading every letter and number associate with her name and walked back to where he was standing before and straightened his bowtie.

Ten minutes later, the principal came back with papers.

"You will start immediately tomorrow," he said. "I'll show you your classroom."

That night the Doctor made changes to the room. It couldn't be too obvious but the chair he was supposed to sit in was dreadfully uncomfortable and didn't even have wheels. And then he was only provided with white chalk, which was just boring.

The next morning, he waited eagerly for a sighting of Rose. He had checked her schedule on the computer and she was currently 17 and had maths first period.

As students came into his class, evaluating their new teacher, he still hadn't seen Rose. The bell rung.

The Doctor was getting frustrated. "Of course!" he murmured softly. "Rose never does what she's supposed to be doing." Right as he finished those words, a blonde quickly rushed into the class and sat down in her seat.

"Sorry!" she called out. The Doctor rolled his eyes but he was grinning. He was so happy. His eyes lighted up upon finally seeing her again.

Her hair was long again. She had cut it just after the Doctor had regenerated for the tenth time. He smiled at the memory.

_The Doctor was being held prisoner in Jackie's kitchen. She was bombarding him with food. "You're too skinny!" she kept on saying. "Before you were all fit, but now? You're a stick!" She gave him another look. "With a ton of hair!"_

_After she finished loading the table with just about every single piece of food she turned to the Doctor. "Now this table better be clear when I come back from the store. If there's any left, Rose can eat that."_

_The Doctor scoffed. "Jackie, this is enough food to last a family a week. Shall I invite the rest of London as well?"_

"_Don't be silly," Jackie responded heading out the door._

"_You're right," the Doctor said as Jackie shut the door behind her. "Nobody in London would eat this even if there was no other food left in the world."_

_The door opened again and the Doctor yelled out "I'm eating Jackie!"_

_It was Rose. Half of her blonde hair had been cut off. The Doctor stared._

"_Oh no. She prepared a feast," Rose said in horror. She stared at the table, blinking. "Make that ten feasts."_

"_Your hair," the Doctor said in astonishment. "It's different…"_

_Rose looked at him, her eyes pointing up and down the Doctor. _

_The Doctor watched his hand as he opened and closed it. "Okay," he submitted. "But you have to admit, regenerations are fascinating! What's the cause of this lovely new hair style?"_

_Rose smiled. "Well it's hard running about the universe trying to have your hair keep up with you. You have no idea how many times it got stuck."_

_The Doctor shrugged. "Well," he said, making a frown. "I have noticed how many times your hair got trapped on the control panel in the TARDIS. There was that one time when you nearly tore your whole scalp off. I tried to pretend not to notice."_

_They laughed together._

"_Personally," the Doctor continued. "I was just surprised it took you a year to get it cut. I thought once you almost scalped yourself you would just find some sharp object and just hack it off yourself."_

_Rose returned the Doctor's huge grin. _

"_Well," said Rose. "Shall we try out my new hair on our next adventure in the TARDIS?"_

_The Doctor straightened up excitedly. Then he looked at the table._

"_I think your first adventure with your new haircut will be this dreadful feast your mum prepared."_

_Rose surveyed the table. "Give me Daleks any day over this," Rose said jokingly. _

He had forgotten how Rose's hair curled at the ends when grown out. Then he noticed the silence of the class as they waited for him to start class.

"Hello everyone!" the Doctor said cheerfully. "I am your new maths professor." He turned to Rose, who was already losing interest and staring blankly at the wall next to her.

The Doctor felt a pang. Rose had always paid the utmost attention to his every word be, even when he went on and on. He imagined her response to that thought. You _always_ go on and on, she would say.

He walked over to her desk and frapped on it with his fist.

"And Miss…" he continued, waiting for her to fill in her name.

Rose jumped up in her seat, startled.

"Miss…" the Doctor repeated.

"Tyler," she said in a rush. "Rose Tyler, sir."

Hearing her voice each time she spoke gave him a burst of happiness.

"I'll let you off this time, for your tardiness, since it's my first day," he said faking his seriousness. Inside he contemplated giving her detention just so he could spend more time with Rose.

"Thank you…sir," Rose said, her eyes filled with relief as she sunk back in her seat again.

The Doctor felt that pang again. He went on to teach the day's lesson. Simple, basic math, really.

His eyes kept going back to Rose. Who was currently going back to staring at the wall again. He had the class do book problems. After he judged an appropriate amount of minutes, he walked over to Rose's desk again.

"Miss Tyler?" he asked her, breaking her reverie once more.

She turned to him, guilt splattered over her face. "I'm sorry sir." She grudgingly pulled out her pen and leaned her head over the book, her hair creating a curtain around her face.

"Rose," he said, his voice caressing the word. She looked up, confused at the tone.

The Doctor cursed at himself. "Do you need any help?" he said with a stern tone.

She smiled sweetly at the Doctor. "Sir, there's no point. I'm not going to get any A Levels. Even the last professor admitted that and let me be."

The Doctor was shocked for a moment. He knew Rose had worked in a shop, but he always saw her as someone to be respected. He always listened to whatever she deducted and truthfully, he relied on her brain and heart for many of their past adventures.

"You know," the Doctor said softly. Rose looked up, her eyebrows raised. "There's more to smartness than just A Levels and math. And I know you're intelligent." Rose nodded slowly, her eyebrows still raised in disbelief.

"I can tell. Er, professor and all. You're smart Rose and will go on to do great, no brilliant things!" He internally hit himself for almost giving too much away. She probably was putting him off as a nut case.

"Come in during lunch and I'll er, give you extra help on that maths assignment," the Doctor continued, his words now completely out of his control.

For a second she looked like she was about to refuse, but she then smiled at him once again. The Doctor received another burst of happiness inside him.

"If I come in for lunch for your help," she said slowly. "Does that mean I can continue to stare at the wall for the rest of the period?"

The Doctor laughed. He hadn't laughed like that since, well, the last time he had seen Rose.

"If you do come in for lunch," he said as he forced himself to walk away from her and to another struggling student.

But he noticed, as he walked around the class, Rose's head stayed bent over with her hair flowing around it and her pen was furiously scratching on the paper for the rest of the period.

As the next periods went by before lunch, the Doctor realized that he really hated teaching. Well, he loved showing new things and seeing the wonder on faces. But really, there was nothing fascinating about numbers this basic. What was interesting is what they could do on a larger scale!

As lunch came, he waited eagerly behind his desk, fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. He had to force himself not to fix the chairs and desks so that they could dance around and then he actually had to throw his sonic screwdriver out of his reach as to not give into the temptation of making the awful lights on the ceiling flash colors around the classroom.

He stared at the clock and watched the hands move grudgingly around in a circle.

Finally Rose appeared at the door of the class. She stepped hesitantly inside, surveying the classroom.

"Come in! Come in Miss Tyler!" the Doctor said jovially.

He got out of his seat and pulled a stray chair over to one of the desks.

As she sat down, he straightened out his bowtie.

She glanced at it and had to struggle not to laugh.

"Yes?" he said sternly. "I like bowties. Bowties are cool."

"Yes sir!" she said, trying again to keep her face straight. She burst out laughing and he joined her.

"I'm…just…so…sorry…sir," she said in between laughs. "They're just sort of ridiculous in my opinion."

The Doctor gave her a look. "Well," she said, trying to redeem herself. "It very much fits you." She grinned.

She took out her books and pen.

The Doctor then helped her with her homework. Slowly, she began to actually try to understand it, and by the end of the lunch period, her homework was done and she was smiling once more.

At the end of the day, the Doctor handed in his resignation papers to the principal.

"Well, you lasted longer than the past man," the principal said sadly. "He couldn't even get through second period." He sighed. "We're really burning through every single math teacher in all of England," he mumbled to himself.

The Doctor walked back to the TARDIS and quickly charted out another destination. He couldn't do this ever again. He had to let Rose go while he was still somewhat in charge of himself. He knew that even one more day with Rose would make it impossible for him to leave her ever again, even when it was time for his 9th generation to enter her life.

The TARDIS sounded as it dematerialized from the school storage room. The Doctor walked over to the telephone in the TARDIS and dialed some numbers. He needed a distraction, something to keep his mind busy.

"River!" he said cheerfully into the phone. "Are you up for some ice skating?"


End file.
